This application pertains to the art of packaging and more particularly to nesting individual pieces or articles in a base or pad member.
The invention is particularly applicable to nesting large bearings of the type employed in engines in a base member for subsequent packaging and will be described with particular reference thereto; however, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention has far broader applications and may be equally employed with innumerable other articles, pieces or the like where nesting of the pieces in a base member is acceptable and practiced.
Heretofore, the packaging of engine bearings has been done by hand and has then required use of special cartons and dunnage specially designed for separating, cushioning, covering and so on the engine bearings being packaged. For some bearing sizes and styles, the dunnage required to effect an acceptable packing arrangement merely comprised cardboard separators and the like while for other bearing sizes and styles the dunnage required comprised foam rubber pads and the like.
In any event, the disadvantages of these prior hand packing methods have been in the fact that the individuals who do the packing pace the production or packing capacity. Because of hand packing, the overall packaging operation is deemed comparatively slow and thus rather expensive insofar as labor costs are concerned. Furthermore, the cost of the dunnage that goes into a given package is extremely high, not only in the cost of material but also in the cost of housing and/or storage therefor.
There is also a good deal of special design work required by packaging engineers each time there is a change or modification in any given package. This results in a change in the work standards which then require the services of an industrial engineer. Such indirect labor costs and undertakings further increase the overall costs of the packaging operation. Finally, hand packing for engine bearings and the like requires an inordinate amount of floor space which could otherwise be placed to better and more productive use.
Accordingly, it is deemed desirable to eliminate the necessity for hand packaging operations and to substantially perform such operations automatically. In this regard, it is considered particularly desirable that all container handling be done automatically by machine and that human operators merely institute the initial packing process by loading the machine. Such apparatus and method of packaging would result in the reduction of the total number of operators required to package the same production output, eliminate the need for at least some of the dunnage required in present manual packing procedures and reduce floor space required for the packing operation.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved method and apparatus which overcome all of the above referred to problems and others and provides a new method and apparatus for packaging which at least meets the above defined desirable features for an automated packaging system. The new method and apparatus are also simple, economical and readily adapted to use in a plurality of environments for packaging any number of different pieces or articles.